1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of unattended machines for dispensing or vending products and services and more specifically relates to the field of dispensing machines that permit access using a plurality of payment means including data cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
Machines for the unattended vending or dispensing of products are commonplace. In the past, the types of items dispensed were generally limited to relatively inexpensive items such as for example candy, cigarettes, and soft drinks. The type of items dispensed and the relatively larger value of a dollar in the past, compared to its value today, meant that vended purchases could generally be made with a few coins.
The expansion of the vending machine sales methodology to more sophisticated and higher priced items, coupled with general economic inflation has resulted in many items whose purchase price exceeds the average consumer's pocket or purse change. Consumers with sufficient cash, but in paper bills rather than coins, were turned away from such machines in frustration. On occasion, change could be obtained from another person or merchant, but asking for change may be somewhat demeaning, and providing change was often a nuisance to the provider, particularly if provided by a competing merchant in the vicinity. The vending machine owner or operator also suffered due to lost sales.
An limited solution was provided by the introduction of a bill changer in proximity to the coin operated vending machine. A bill changer is generally a stand-alone machine which provisionally accepts paper currency, generally of a fixed denomination, performs some validation to assure its authenticity, and then presents an equivalent amount of change for the customer which could subsequently be used in the coin operated machines. This permitted continued use of the coin operated machines at only moderate consumer inconvenience. However, provision of bill validators may have been economically practical only if several vending machines were collocated and shared a single bill changer. The cost of the bill changer and the requirement to fill the bill validator with coins, essentially a non-interest bearing remote bank account, making the provision of stand-alone bill changers for each vending machine somewhat prohibitive. Security is also a concern, since the unattended cash is attractive to potential thieves.
As new vending machines have been produced, the ones capable of vending higher priced items may incorporate a bill validator as a standard module, or be designed to be retrofitted with one. The provision of a integral bill validator in addition to the traditional coin operation fulfills some of the consumer's needs but leaves other problems unsolved.
The bill validators initially installed either integrally or as stand-alone units were typically configured to accept U.S. one-dollar notes. In some markets, higher valuation bills, such as U.S. five-dollar notes may be accepted but these are unusual rather than commonplace features.
As a result, consumers having sufficient cash may still be frustrated by not having cash in the proper form for the machine to accept, in this case coins or one-dollar bills. The consumer may actually be in a more difficult position when attempting to get change, from for example a 20-dollar bill, because of the greater amount of money involved. The provision of coin acceptors or fixed-denomination bill changers has not kept up with the higher valuation of products and the effects of inflation. The vending machine owner still looses profit because of lost sales.
The rationale for limiting the denomination of paper currency accepted is somewhat persuasive from the standpoint of the vending machine owner or operator. Security and loss of potential investment interest are the primary additional concerns. The acceptance of larger denomination bills necessarily requires larger amounts of change internal to the machine. This constitutes a greater initial monetary investment to fund operation, results in loss of interest income which could be gained on the same funds if deposited into an interest bearing account, and presents a greater threat from theft because of the larger amounts of cash involved. The potential loss by the use of counterfeit currency is also greater since larger amounts of genuine coins could be extracted more quickly with larger counterfeit notes.
Operation of machines that accept multiple denomination paper currency, such as one-dollar, five-dollar, ten-dollar, and twenty-dollar notes, present additional problems. Such a bill validator may require substantial additional technological sophistication to discriminate among the accepted paper currency denominations and to detect counterfeit currency. It is economically difficult to justify placing this high level of complexity in the large number of machines needed to satisfy consumer demand.
These problems affect both the potential purchaser of products from the dispensing machines and the owner or operator of the vending machine. There are other longer term affects on the vending machine marketing concept which results from continued use of machines which accept only coins or currency.
Consumers are becoming more comfortable in performing relatively large financial transactions through the use of a card of some type and possibly a personal identification number (PIN). Such access is becoming common for unattended access to bank teller machines, public transportation systems, and the unassisted purchase of airline travel tickets for example. There are many other examples.
Given this trend, consumers are more comfortable making unattended purchases involving larger monetary amounts with non-currency devices. The faster paced lifestyle also encourages purchases, or rentals, from unattended machines which offer the potential of 24-hour access. The requirement for cash stalls this potential growth area and is an inconvenience to customers.
It is also advantageous to the vending machine owner or operator to have a machine capable of cash free operation. Cash free operation, especially if the cash free operation is recognized by the potential thief, eliminates the problems associated with theft and theft based vandalism.
It also eliminates the need for loss of interest on a possibly substantial cash fund within the machine.
For a part of the consuming public bank credit cards could provide the flexibility needed to access the more sophisticated dispensing machines that are being introduced today. However, their are serious problems with reliance on these existing credit or debit methods.
One immediate problem from the standpoint of a vending machine owner is the potentially very high per purchase transaction charge levied by the banks on their bank credit cards for such transactions. These transaction charges may be acceptable for the larger purchases but may be unacceptable from a merchants or consumers point of view for individual item transactions of a few dollars or less. This type of access would not be suitable for all types of purchases.
A second problem associated with the reliance on bank credit cards is the fact that not all segments of the public qualify for credit cards, minors in particular constitute a significant segment of the vending market who would not have credit cards. Other market segments do not generally, or perhaps at the time the purchase is desired, have an appropriate credit balance to allow the transaction to go through.
There is also necessity of some communication link with the bank or other administrative organization for approval. Even if such a communication link is provided, the processing delay may be unacceptable during peak purchasing periods and would discourage use.
Other persons may be hesitant to use their credit card for minor transactions. A further potential problem relates to personal privacy in an age of data bases which track an individuals every move and purchase. There are individuals who prefer to operate on a financial basis that approaches the anonymity associated with cash. Bank credit cards do not permit such anonymity.
Other individuals may hesitate to deposit their bank credit card in an unattended location, where mechanical or electrical failure could preclude card recovery and force a customer to abandon their credit card. This same concern is not present at such machines as bank teller machines due to the perception of greater reliability of these machines, or alternately that in the event of some failure, the card will be kept by the financial institution and will not fall into unauthorized hands, thereby subjecting the card owner to relatively unlimited financial liability.
Beyond the actual problems associated with the aforementioned cash or credit card transactions, there are other limitations associated with these access techniques. The promotional use of discount coupons has long been employed to facilitate sales of new products, for example. There is no known existing equivalent method of promoting a first purchase of a new item from a vending machine by a particular market segment. The price of a vended items may be attractively reduced, but this may result in loss of profits from persons making multiple purchases of that item at the reduced, perhaps unprofitable price. Alternatively, the general public rather than a specific market segment may be induced to buy, again diminishing profits.
It is also highly desirable that if some type of debit card implementation is used, then the cards should be transportable and capable of use in a variety of similar machines. This gives the consumer confidence that his investment will not be wasted if he does not return to the data card issuing location.
Another problem associated with expanding the nature and scope of vending machine access instruments is the large inventory of existing vending machines which owners would prefer to operate for the remainder of their useful life. Therefore there is a desirability of retrofitting any improvement to these devices within the existing vending machine structure.
Supplementary devices which attach to the machine externally, either by direct attachment or by a separate stand-alone unit are problematic in that they either consume additional floor space which may not be available, create a safety problem by extending from the front of a vending machine into the room, or result in inefficient space utilization and potential loss of sales if they are mounted to the side of an existing vending machine. In the later case, vending machines in a multi-vending machine installation (such as a solid wall of adjacent machines) will have to be spaced at greater distance intervals, and where there is insufficient free space to extend the line of machines, some vending machines may have to be eliminated with consequential loss of product sales, which may not be made up by the sales of available items.
There have been attempts to satisfy the need and solve the aforementioned problems, but these prior attempts have not been successful.
Capers et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,596) describe an accessory to a cash operated vending machine which purports to permit operation by either money or coded card. However, it is externally mounted and does not provide the advanced features desirable in today's sophisticated consumer market. For example, the Capers et al. apparatus does not provide a data card retention feature, nor capabilities for promotional marketing. The Capers et al. apparatus also requires the conventional retention of a means for handling money and producing an electrical output signal in response to received money which precludes a simplified all debit card type of operation. This precludes a completely cash free operation, or requires the retention of unused internal cash handing equipment. The Capers et al. apparatus also requires structural modification to the vending machine for mounting the accessory.
An apparatus by Stutsman (U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,212) was also an attempt to satisfy the need and eliminate some of the aforementioned problems. However, it too failed to completely satisfy the need. The Stutsman apparatus was largely a self contained unit which stored most of its information in internal memory and only a minimum amount of data on the data card. Also, the Stutsman apparatus relies on a either an internal or a remote database to retain customer data. The information is not contained on the card, other than an identification code, and is not updated as transactions are made. The cards are prevalued and a card with the appropriate value is dispensed when payment is made; information is not written to the card at the vending location by the machine dispensing the card. Therefore it lacks the desired transportability. The Stutsman apparatus is an entire system and is not suitable for installation in existing machines lacking data card access means. The Stutsman apparatus also does not provide the advanced features desirable in today's sophisticated consumer market. For example, as with the Capers et al. apparatus, it does not provide a data card retention feature, nor capabilities for promotional marketing.
Thus, there has been a need for a method and apparatus for accessing unattended machines which dispense a range of products or services and which overcomes these problems and limitations. The present invention meets this need.
In response to this need it is an object of the present invention to provide a vending machine access method which can reduce or completely eliminate the need for cash money transactions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine access method which can be added to existing vending machines without mechanical modifications and without changing or replacing the existing electrical components or wiring.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine which provides for non-cash access coupled with anonymity of personal actions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine access method which is readily transportable from machine to machine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a non-cash vending machine that does not require connection or access to an external database.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine that has a card retention capability for defective cards.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine that has enhanced security features.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine that provides for promotional marketing of selected products to selected market segments.